Tag Archives: lubchenco-s-job-killing-agenda

Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to President Obama, has declined to explain why the White House turned a deaf ear to the pleas of Gov. Deval Patrick for relief from what Patrick told her were “impending drastic cuts” in landings allowed the groundfishing fleet concentrated in his state. continued

By Rich Eldred – BREWSTER — Just as big eat the little fish in the sea, Cape Cod’s fishing fleet is being swallowed by larger pockets that are buying the available quota of cod and other catch. continued

Jane Lubchenco’s provocative tenure as NOAA administrator ended Thursday, three years, 11 months and nine days after it began, with the groundfishery she promised to save in an apparent death spiral – Read more here

The New England Fishery Management Council has voted to recommend giving commercial groundfishermen access to parts of five areas that have been closed to them for many years. The request to open closed areas to commercial fishing came days before the NOAA Science Center issued a report on the 2011 fishing year that contained the revelation that only 41 percent of allocated fish were landed in 2011. Read More

Keiley said she believes people are “frustrated” with the report because “they want to know two things:” “Are people making money … and how many people are working,” she said, “and those are two questions the report does not, and really cannot answer directly.” She said she did not blame the Science Center because “they have presented everything they can.” “This is a situation where data is insufficient to provide the analysis people want,” she said. Keiley also pointed out that “revenue is not evenly distributed. The top 50 percent of vessels earned 90 percent of the total revenue, leaving the bottom 50 percent of vessels earning only 10 percent of the total revenue. Read More

According to Wikipedia“Flotsam is floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo. Jetsam is part of a ship, its equipment, or its cargo that is purposefully cast overboard or jettisoned to lighten the load in time of distress and that sinks or is washed ashore.”

They are used together to indicate potentially valuable materials floating on the seas’ surface.,This seems an apt title for periodic FishNets in which I address several issues that should be of value to anyone with an interest in oceans and fisheries in a somewhat abbreviated manner.

The forage fish fake out

Peter Baker gets a spanking.

And the Conservation Law Foundation is always there for the fishermen – just ask ‘em(Or better yet, ask a fisherman.)

There can be no celebration, only a sense of profound relief over the resignation and coming exit of Jane Lubchenco as chief administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And that sense of relief should not allow either commercial fishermen or our federal lawmakers to relax their guards between now and the February date when Lubchenco will formally bow out of her role. Indeed, the downside of Lubchenco’s plan to leave her six-figure post is that the Department of Commerce is essentially allowing her to do so on her own terms as if she should have had any choice after her policies reduced one of America’s oldest and most noble small-business industries to an admitted state of “economic disaster” in New England during her four short years at the helm. Read More

“This is a really critical time for our fishermen’s economic situation, and I hope it’ll also be the moment when we begin a new era for our fishing communities in terms of their relationships and their dealing with NOAA,” he said in an email. “The next NOAA administrator can set a tone on Day One by proactively offering a seat at the table for our fishermen in the decision-making … .”

I’m happy for everyone here that this has transpired. It was but a few short weeks ago that Lubchenco wanted another four years as head of NOAA.

“There is so much more yet to do, and I want to do everything possible to make [it] happen,” she tells ScienceInsider. ScienceInsider traveled to Monterey, California, last week to attend a scientific conference on ocean acidification, where this wide-ranging interview with Lubchenco took place.” http://news.sciencemag.org/sci…

This tells me she was cut loose, and the “Singing My Own Praise Song” that includes twenty verses of success malarkey was sung by NOAA’s Milli Vanilli.

The question for fishermen and industry is, do we let them push another destructive leader into the slot, or do we for once push for someone trustworthy and credible, as one united front?

Whom would be the one person known to this industry that would fit this criteria?

I, like many of you have read damn near everything printed, anywhere I could find it, and of all the names that meet the criteria may not, for a multitude of reasons be interested, but I’m going to throw it out there and gauge the response.

Dr.Brian Rothschild.

This man is more than qualified, and could assemble a nucleus of trustworthy team members that could restore the trust destroyed by decades of mismanagement.

We’ve tackled some big challenges together. Through an emphasis on transparency,
integrity, innovation, team work and communication, we have made significant
progress on multiple fronts. As you know, NOAA’s breadth is one of our greatest
challenges, but it’s also our great strength. Both are in evidence below. Our
notable progress includes (in no particular order!):

Congressman John Tierney and two colleagues today asked the House Appropriations Committee not to forget the Northeast groundfishing industry in the drafting of any disaster relief legislation for the Atlantic states ravaged in late October by superstorm Sandy. Patrick blamed the catch share system for the disaster, but Blank described it resulting from “undetermined causes” and diminishing stocks rather than government policies designed to remove a “sizable fraction” of the fleet, as NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco had,,,,,,http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x1839363389/Reps-seek-to-tie-fishing-boost-to-Sandy-aid

Over a longer haul, that should mean the abolition and abandonment of the catch share system as we know it. But in the short term, that must mean clamping accumulation limits on the amount of quota any company can control, or taking other steps to ensure that smaller, independent fishermen are not driven out of business by their own government.

Kerry released the following statement to the Times yesterday in response to a request about his position on Magnuson. “The status quo isn’t working, and I say that as someone who is passionate about the environment, but who can see plainly that people are hurting and there are legitimate issues that have to be fixed. “I’m going to be talking with fishing and environmental experts at the state and federal level to develop sustainable fisheries in New England and work with the New England delegation, as I always have, to keep federal assistance flowing into Massachusetts for our fishing families and to rebuild the fisheries.” http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x966804462/Kerry-to-fishermen-Lubchenco-your-friend

No offense Senator,,,,,,,,,,screw it, Senator Kerry, you thought then, as you do now, that its all about frittering out a few bucks to to the victims of President Obama’s US Commerce Department, the New England Fishing Industry. You have been ineffective Senator, and I’m done beating the drum for you. You have not delivered, Senator.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. This “disaster,” after all, is hardly due to natural causes or “dwindling stocks,” as Blank’s declaration tried to push off on fishermen, lawmakers and taxpayers. It is chiefly due to NOAA’s chief administrator Jane Lubchenco’s job-killing catch share management system, which has enabled a relatively few large-scale fishing operations to gobble up more and more shares of the allowable catch. That change alone drove more than 20 percent of Gloucester’s smaller, family-owned boats to the sidelines in catch shares’ first year, an economic disaster in its own right, and verified through NOAA’s own figures. http://www.gloucestertimes.com/opinion/x121545279/Editorial-Lack-of-fishing-disaster-aid-paints-telling-picture

“Elizabeth Warren will be the champion of the fishing industry,” Ferrante predicted in an interview Wednesday. “She has experience up against Wall Street, big oil, and lost the chance to open the consumer financial protection bureau because of her feuding with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner when Obama refused to submit her name for Senate confirmation.http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x1499661062/Election-alters-fishings-landscape

millionaires and billionaires…beep…..millionaires and billionaires…beep…..

The crisis threatening the survival of Gloucester and other East Coast fishing communities — which have declined into officially declared disaster during the last four years — has not registered a blip during the 2012 national election campaign, even as voters go to the polls today. Neither Mitt Romney nor President Obama has paid a whit’s attention to an $331 million industry, though Obama has given silent support to his team at NOAA Fisheries, headed by Jane Lubchenco, over calls for her ouster from several fedral lawmakers. http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x121541642/Presidential-race-radar-never-hit-fishing-crises

In recent years, New Hampshire fishermen have seen their incomes decline as federal regulations designed to end overfishing have limited the amount of fish they can catch. To make matters worse, these often-onerous regulations haven’t helped the cod population rebound as expected. In fact, a 2011 scientific study by the National Marine Fisheries Service found so few codfish in the Gulf of Maine that the quota for the upcoming fishing year must be set extremely low — so low that it jeopardizes the survival of New Hampshire’s fishing industry. The Survey SUCKS!BH

A large number of big commercial trawlers — 70 feet or more in length — from Gloucester and Boston have been drawn this week to the nearby inshore grounds of Middle Bank in pursuit of the season’s first pulse of cod, combing areas that are the usual domain of smaller, independent day boats from multiple ports, several sources told the Times Wednesday…….But since the advent in May 2010 of catch share fishing, predicated on the trading of allocated fishing rights between gear types and boat sizes — allowed to members of sectors or fishing cooperatives — the taking of inshore cod by offshore boats has been a persistent theme and complaint by dayboat fishermen that the only available source of their harvest and income has been subject to plunder by boats of a much larger scale…….A critical element in the pulse fishing for cod on Stellwagen was the elimination of daily catch limits for boats which entered sectors; these boats were given allocations and encouraged to catch as much as they were allowed at any time. The efficiency of the new system was one of its prime selling points.http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x674144460/Cod-war-returns-to-Middle-Bank

This should have been addressed before amendment 16 was rammed through. The EDF goal of Herr Lubchenco.

Yes, consolidation was occuring pre a-16, but then it really was free market driven consolidation.

Of course, the NSC syndicate likes it the way it is now, and why would’t they?

As far as “crossing the border” skirting the referendum vote, that has already taken place, the reason for the lawsuit.

For the syndicate to be concerned, is like Walmart saying they care about their employees, and they are looking out for their best interests! Why the parallel?

There are a whole bunch of fishermen not represented by the syndicate, that work within the syndicate. Crewmen that rely on the owners to do the right thing for them, as they share the expenses in the free enterprise lay/share arraingement of compensation, along with the owners. Crewmen now pay for leased quota with no representation, along with the regular expenses. They have become poorer and marginalized.

Only now is there a half assed effort to understand the system of compensation through a “socio economic survey” that should have been considered pre a-16.

I’m sure Johanna Thompson is a nice lady, but to read about EDFs concerns about fishermen? I find them amusing, and diingenuous following the history of EDFs actions, and knowing they recieve multi millions year in, year out from the Walton Foundation to privatize the resource.

Funny thing about the “socio” survey. All the current data collected already includes people like Johanna, regulators, and “stakeholders” involved in fishery issues.

A draft letter to congressional leaders from the office of Sen. John Kerry, circulating within the New England delegation in connection with a proposed and controversial fisheries aid package, blames the decline of the groundfishery on weakened fish stocks — and nothing else.

When Jane Lubchenco was appointed as the head of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) in 2009, I believe that it enabled an important part of a decades long plan to transform America into just another member of the global community, from the inside. This has enabled these “Fabian Socialists” to accelerate the process of destroying the commercial fishing industry in the USA, to further their long-term vision of sustainable international fisheries.

Dr. Lubchenco has demonstrated a total disinterest in the economic crisis that she has created in places like Gloucester Mass, and all along the coasts of New England and across this great country. She has gone to great lengths to completely avoid addressing the issues that are important to our fishermen.

In 2011, she declined to testify at a U.S. Senate subcommittee invitation in Boston called “How is NOAA managing funds to protect the domestic fishing industry”. Makes sense if you look at the facts (as we have), and find that she isn’t interested in protecting the domestic fishing industry at all. Dr. Lubchenco has always been looking at a bigger picture.

I’d like to highlight some recent comments that she made at a RFMO (Regional Fisheries Management Organizations) conference in Belgium on June 1st, 2012. This doesn’t happen often, as she tends to avoid the spotlight, but on this day it seems that her mask slipped. She made numerous comments that represent (what I believe to be) her true motivation for the decisions that she makes at NOAA.

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

Two cousins in Stewiacke, N.S. have built a 24-metre wooden schooner, just like their great-great-grandfather once did. Evan Densmore was only 22-years-old when he started designing the schooner Read More »

The North Carolina Coastal Federation is currently accepting applications from commercial fishermen interested in assisting with an on-water cleanup of lost fishing gear from coastal waters. Read More »